Country house of dead souls

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Movie
German title Country house of dead souls
Original title Burnt Offerings
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1976
length 116 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Dan Curtis
script William F. Nolan ,
Dan Curtis,
Robert Marasco ( original )
production Dan Curtis
music Robert Cobert
camera Jacques R. Marquette
cut Dennis Virkler
occupation

Dead Souls House is an American film released in 1976 . The horror film , directed by Dan Curtis , based on a novel by Robert Marasco , revolves around an evil-possessed house that is doomed for a vacationing family there .

action

The married couple Ben and Marian Rolf want to go on vacation with their twelve year old son David and Ben's aunt Elizabeth. You are renting an old, somewhat shabby neoclassical villa that is being offered by the somewhat eccentric older siblings Allardyce at an extremely low price. The only condition is that they have to look after the owner's mother, who lives in the attic of the house and never leaves her premises. The Rolfes' misgivings about not being able to take care of such a large house in full are dispelled with the strange remark that the house takes care of itself. And on photographs in the drawing room, the house looks strangely younger on more recent photographs. Marian is immediately taken by the house, while Ben still hesitates. But he gives in and the family moves in.

Over time, the strange events pile up. A light bulb in the pantry is broken, but minutes later it lights up again as if nothing had happened. The old lady who lives under the roof never appears and Marian, who is supposed to look after her, is worried because the food that she puts in the anteroom of the attic is never touched. However, Marian notices countless portrait photographs of people of all ages and from different times standing on a sideboard and is fascinated by a small, ancient music box .

Since she feels responsible for the old lady, Marian forbids the other family members from entering the attic. She begins to lovingly take care of the house and takes care of the completely neglected winter garden . Meanwhile, Ben and David take care of the neglected swimming pool . In a small forest on the spacious property, the two find an old cemetery with graves of the Allardyce family, none of which is more recent.

When father and son try the pool, Ben suddenly freaks out for no reason and begins to throw David around wildly while splashing around and push him under the water. The little one almost drowns and runs away in panic. Later, Ben cannot explain his behavior, especially because he thinks he really wants to hurt his son. At night he has terrible nightmares about his mother's funeral , which he witnessed as a child. In his dream, he meets an eerie chauffeur with sunglasses who grins diabolically at him . The next day, father and son get along again.

Little by little, the house apparently transforms itself from a shabby villa into an architectural gem. The garden looks more well-tended, the pool area is like new again, although Ben and David haven't paid so much attention to it, and the winter garden shines in new splendor over time. Marian claims to her family that she is responsible for it. She only has eyes for the house and is no longer receptive to Ben's sexual advances. The old Mrs. Allardyce has still not appeared, while Marian is more and more occupied with the house and is increasingly dressing and hairdressing more old-fashioned.

In contrast, the other family members feel increasingly uncomfortable in the house. Aunt Elizabeth, otherwise the flourishing life, looks more and more dull and exhausted. However, she forces herself to stay awake. Ben tries to distract himself with gardening, but suddenly has hallucinations of an ancient hearse with the grinning chauffeur at the wheel. At night he notices the smell of gas in front of his son's room, but can only save him after he has kicked the strangely locked door of his son's room. Marian blames Aunt Elizabeth for the incident. Ben confronts his wife and notices how she is becoming more and more estranged from the family and obsessed with the house. This assumption is confirmed when David accidentally breaks a vase and Marian overreacts. However, his wife denies everything.

In the evening, Aunt Elizabeth, lying in bed without a logically recognizable trigger, breaks her pelvis and / or thigh, slowly bleeds to death and can hardly move. Ben wants to call a doctor, but every connection he chooses is busy. But when Marian tries to make a phone call, she says she got through without any problems. Ben is on guard by his aunt's bed. Suddenly he has visions again of the hearse that stops in front of the villa. It doesn't seem to be hallucinations, though, because his aunt also sees the chauffeur standing in the doorway grinning and letting a coffin roll towards them. Ben is completely unable to move.

Aunt Elizabeth dies. After the funeral, which, to Ben's annoyance, Marian stayed away, he is determined to leave the house, with or without Marian, who wants to stay at the villa forever. In the afternoon Ben notices that during a rain shower the outside walls of the house renew themselves as if the wooden wall cladding and roof tiles come off and new, unpolluted ones come to the fore. Panicked, he drags his frightened son to the car and tries to escape. However, the access to the property is blocked by a fallen tree. He tries in vain to get it out of the way and is shocked when he tries to drive the car into the tree and bangs his head against the wheel. The hurried Marian drives the car back to the house. On the way back, Ben sees the grinning chauffeur again, who is behind the wheel instead of his wife.

The next day, Ben sits apathetically by the pool while his son swims. Suddenly the water begins to hit waves, which become more and more violent, so that the son threatens to drown. Ben, unable to move, struggled to get out of the wheelchair and crawl to the pool. At the last second, Marian saves her son after the house tried for minutes to prevent her by locking the doors and windows. Now Marian finally agrees to disappear from here.

On the day of departure, Marian wants to see the old lady again and say goodbye. When she doesn't come back after a while, Ben goes after her. He enters Mrs. Allardyce's bedroom and sees a gray-haired woman sitting in a wheelchair by the window with her back to him. He turns the wheelchair around. It is with horror that he realizes who is sitting there: It is his wife, strangely disfigured and aged, who looks at him deeply angry with her pale eyes. As she approaches him, he backs away and in the next scene he flies through the attic window down onto the windshield of his car. His son ran into the street in panic and was killed by the collapsing chimney of the house.

The house has regenerated itself, it looks like new, and the photographs of Ben, David and Elizabeth have been added to the dresser in the attic.

Location

The film was made on the site of Dunsmuir House near Oakland , California , which was built by architect J. Eugene Freeman in 1899 for Alexander Dunsmuir in a neoclassical style. The house, which has 37 rooms and 10 open fireplaces, is decorated with countless Tiffany glass art . The villa is a popular location where the horror film " The Evil " and scenes from the James Bond film " In the Face of Death " were filmed.

Awards

Reviews

  • film-dienst : "A horror film of dignified dramaturgical and technical quality, with carefully measured moments of shock and cleverly built-in gags."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History on dunsmuir-hellman.com, accessed October 11, 2018
  2. ↑ Information on dunsmuir-hellman.com, accessed on October 11, 2018
  3. ↑ Country House of Dead Souls. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used